Theories of Folktale Origin

Monogenesis ("single origin") Theory:

• The earliest theory; also called the "Indo-European Myth Theory" or "Aryan Myth Theory".
• Belief that all folktales were descended from the myths of the Indo-Europeans or Aryans.
  • Indo-Europeans were supposedly ancestral to many races from India west through Europe.
  • Almost all European languages are descended from the Indo-European language; possibly many folktale elements have descended also.
  • Does not take into account similar folktales from other parts of the world.

Polygenesis ("many origin") Theory:

• Belief that people everywhere have the same experiences and thus develop the same stories.
• People in all parts of the world are not alike.
• Although stories might have originated in similar experiences, it is unlikely that they would be as similar in details as they have proved to be.

Psychological explanations:

• Freud believed that folktales arose from our unconscious needs and frustrations, which grew out of our childhood experiences.
• Jung believed that folktales grew out of our "collective unconscious," experiences that are rooted in the past of all mankind so that stories which grew out of them are found among all peoples.
• Some people believe that folktales grew out of dreams and nightmares which haunt us.
• Some people believe that folktales are a form of wish fulfillment, which allow us to satisfy our emotional needs.

Sociological explanations:

• Some people have believed that folktales are remnants of nature myths; stories which explain nature through a story which was once accepted as true.
• Others have believed that folktales are remnants of other kinds of religious myth or ritual; characters may symbolize various mythical characters, or rhymes memorialize ritual words and speeches.
• Anthropologists believe that folktales are the "cement of society," einforcing the moral lessons that a society wants its members to learn.

Diffusion of folktales:

• Many folktales exist in variant forms from all over the world.
• Folktales were carried from one place to another as groups of people migrated and settled in new areas.
• Folktales have also been carried by individuals- soldiers and sailors, captives and slaves, minstrels and bards, merchants and traders--who have moved from one place to another temporarily or permanently.
• Tales which traveled by land changed more than those that traveled by sea, because more people told and thus changed them.

Folktales today:

• Folktales were originally told to an audience of both adults and children; the oral process of telling and adapting folktales continues today in many parts of the world, but among literate peoples, the process is found less often now except in storytelling to children.
• Once a story is written down, it tends to be more fixed in form, and even people who tell it change it less.
• Cumulative tales are popular with preschool children; preschool and primary children like talking animal tales; and third and fourth graders prefer tales of magic (Märchen).
• There is currently a revival of storytelling (especially by professional storytellers) in this country, which is popular with adults as well as children.

Setting:

• Time is quickly set in the introduction, usually with a stock phrase such as "Once upon a time."
• Place is generalized: a palace, a hut, a forest.

Characters:

• Characters are usually flat, representing one human characteristic such as wickedness, goodness, or stupidity.
• There is often contrast in characters: a good child vs. a wicked stepmother, a young boy vs. a wicked ogre.

Plot:

• The most important characteristic of the folktale is an exciting, swift-moving plot with lots of conflict and suspense.
• The introduction is very short; it gives the setting and introduces the characters in a very few words and then starts right in with the action.
• Plots are often cumulative (for young children) or cyclic; in western cultures, plots are often based on a cycle of three recurrences.
• Although many plots use magic or have magical characters, the plot must be logical and plausible within its setting.
• The plot must have unity; every incident must relate to the story's conflict.
• The plot usually has a swift and satisfying conclusion.

Theme:

• Folktales satisfy our sense of justice and morality because good is usually rewarded and evil punished.
• Folktales hold up a mirror to human nature; often they make us laugh at ourselves.

Style:

• Folktales often include rhyme and repetition; often some kind of formula is used to introduce and/or conclude the story.
• Rich language is used, which often maintains the flavor of the country of origin; there is much dialogue, and words are so carefully chosen that detailed description is unnecessary.
• There is much imagery in the style, and there is a flavor of oral telling.

Motifs:

• A motif is the smallest part of a story which persists in the oral tradition; it can recur in many stories or be transferred from one story to another.
• Types of motifs:
  • Characters: a wicked stepmother, an evil witch, a stupid boy, a handsome prince, a woodcutter, a donkey, a giant.
  • Places: a forest, a ballroom in a palace, a hut in a forest, a river.
  • Objects: a glass slipper, a magical tablecloth, a golden ball, a rose.
  • Actions or events: a journey, a palace ball (dance), tricking an opponent, answering a riddle.

Fairy tale (Märchen, tale of magic, wonder tale)

• This is the best known type of folktale, and one of the most popular (ex.: Duffy and the Devil, by Harve and Margot Zemach).
• Characteristics:
  • Tale of some length, with a succession of episodes and motifs
  • Setting does not have a definite location or time
  • Includes magic and/or magical characters and marvelous adventures
  • Preferred by children in the third and fourth grade.

Noodlehead story (droll, numskull story, humorous story)

• Story about a silly or stupid person who nevertheless often wins out in the end (ex.: Lazy Jack).
• Often nonsensical; meant for fun.

Pourquoi story (explanatory tale, etiological tale)

• Story that explains why something happens; usually explains something in the natural world, such as the weather or how a particular plant or animal came to be (ex.: Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears, by Leo and Diane Dillon).
• Pourquoi tales are often found in mythology, also.

Talking animal tales (talking beast tales)

• Tales of animals which talk and act like human beings (ex.: The Little Red Hen, by Paul Galdone)
• Especially popular with preschool children.

Realistic tales

• All the elements of the story could happen, though they may be exaggerated or humorous (ex.:"Clever Manka").
• These tales are relatively few in number.

Religious tales

• Tales which use elements of religious belief, but which are not based on the "official" beliefs of the particular religion.
• Few religious tales are found among tales for children which are available in English; the most common examples are saints' tales (ex.: The Lady of Guadalupe).

Formula tales

• Includes short tales which follow a definite formula (see paper on "Plots"); most common type is cumulative tales, which are very popular with preschool children.
• Includes some tales which do not fit into other categories, such as the tale of "The Gingerbread Boy" and its variants.

Jests (jokes)

• Jokes or jests are very short humorous stories, usually with only one incident.
• Jokes are probably the most common form of folklore prevalent in our society today; almost everyone hears jokes and then repeats them to other people.
• Jokes may circulate for years; sometimes with slight changes, sometimes intact.
• Jokes may circulate orally and then appear in print; they may also appear first in print, and then enter oral circulation.

Riddles

• Riddles are questions which the listener is expected to answer; answers are difficult to answer, usually based on word play, illogic, or special knowledge.
• Riddles were once very popular in oral circulation, but today few traditional riddles are remembered (some do appear in Mother Goose books).
• Riddles are still very popular with children, but most of the riddles they ask today are ones found in books, and children do not remember them long.

Superstitions

• Superstitions are traditional beliefs which are learned orally from other people.
• Although some superstitions do have a scientific basis, the superstition usually arose long before the reason for it was discovered scientifically. (For example, the weather belief, "Red sky at morning, sailors take warning; red sky at night, sailors delight," comes from very early times (a form of it is found in the Bible), but only much later did we learn that the earth rotates eastward so that red clouds in the eastern sky at morning means our area is heading toward a storm, while red skies in the west at night mean that we have passed the bad weather.)
• Superstitions can have to do with almost any topic, but they often deal with the causes of good or bad luck, or how to insure or predict events. (Examples: a black cat crossing one's path is bad luck; finding a four-leaf clover is lucky; an itching nose means someone is coming to visit; showering a bridal couple with rice will bring them many children.)

Proverbs

• Proverbs are moral sayings; they are "the most highly condensed commentary on human folly or wisdom."
• Proverbs are very short, often only one sentence or line; proverbs have two parts, a cause or condition and a result: an apple a day / keeps the doctor away; you can lead a horse to water / but you cannot make him drink; a penny saved / is a penny earned.
• Proverbs with two parts often show contrast: laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone.
• Two separate proverbs may take two opposing points of view: absence makes the heart grow fonder; out of sight, out of mind.
• Thirty years ago, traditional proverbs were often used in speaking, and children learned them automatically from hearing adults say them; today they are not used nearly as often, and many children do not know the traditional forms.

Moral tales

Fables

• Brief stories which take abstract ideas of good and bad, wisdom and foolishness, and make them concrete.
• Characteristics of a true fable (some stories that are called fables do not fit all of these, however):
  • Characters are animals, or occasionally inanimate objects, which behave like human beings.
  • Characters are flat, and stand for one human trait.
  • Plot is very brief, with one incident.
  • The story teaches a lesson, which may or many not be expressed in a proverb or maxim.
• Important fable collections:
  • Aesop's fables is the best known fable collection for English-speaking children; Aesop was supposedly a slave in Greece in the sixth century, B. C., who told the stories, but we do not know whether or not he really existed; this collection was one of the first books ever printed in English, and the fables are in the pure fable form described above (Ex.: The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse).
  • Fables collections from India include the Panchatantra (Hindu fables) and the Jatakas (Buddhist fables) (Ex.: The Monkey and the Crocodile).
  • Fables of Jean de La Fontaine were written in the 17th century by a Frenchman; these are really literary tales (not oral folklore) written in French poetry; prose versions can be found in English: Brian Wildsmith has used several in picture books (Ex.: The North Wind and the Sun).

Parables

• Similar to fables, but characters are usually people, and there may be two short incidents instead of one.
• There are few parables in the English language, except Christ's parables in the New Testament.

Myths

• A mythology is a related body of stories which make up the official beliefs or explanations of a religious system; they attempt to explain the beginning of the world, the reasons for various natural phenomena (pourquoi tales), the relationships among the gods and among gods and men, the origins of civilization and religion, and the ultimate end of things.
  • Once myths are written down, they tend to retain a fixed form, and do not develop further.
  • Mythological systems in an early form of development are very much like folktales and include many stories which anthropomorphize (make human-like) animals and or give spirits to natural objects such as the sun, moon, and rivers; most American Indian and African myths are at this stage.
  • Gradually these anthropomorphized animals and impersonal forces became gods, and complex groups of stories grew up about them. (The Greek and Roman myths and the Norse myths are at this stage; Roman and Greek gods are used as examples below).
  • The gods had superhuman power but often were very human in form and in behavior; they came to personify abstract virtues and forces such as love (Venus or Aphrodite), the family (Juno or Hera), wisdom (Minerva or Athena), and war (Mars or Ares).
  • The animals and natural objects which were once themselves worshipped became symbols of the gods: a thunderbolt (Zeus or Jupiter), the sun (Apollo), the owl (Minerva or Athena).
• Important mythological systems:
  • Certain mythologies should be taught to children, because the stories, concepts, and even names are so important in understanding our cultural heritage and modern literature.
  • Greek myths are the most important; they are basic to much of our literature (Ex: Daughter of Earth).
  • The Romans adopted Greek myths, renamed the Greek gods with the names of Roman gods, and changed the stories very little; the names of the Roman gods are usually better known than the Greek ones, however.
  • The Norse myths are basic to Germanic literatures, and very important in English literature also.

Legends and epics

• Legends and epics are stories of human heroes; the stories may have gods as characters, but the main characters are human beings.
• There is no clear distinction between legends and epics, but both are hero tales about men (very seldom women) who have accomplished great and impossible feats.
  • Legend is the general name for hero tales; it may be one tale or a series of related tales; legends probably had some original basis in fact. (Archeological discoveries in Crete substantiated many of the details of the legend about the Greek hero Theseus, who conquered Crete.)
  • Tales of most of the Greek heroes are called legends, rather than epics, and are usually published with the Greek myths.
  • An epic is usually considered to be a large cycle of stories about a hero; they are often told originally in poetry, and are strongly national in character; the heroes embody the ideals most desired by the particular society, and the stories present the moral code of the country and the time.
• Important legends and epics:
  • Greece: The Iliad; The Odyssey.
  • Norse: Sigurd the Volsung.
  • England: Robin Hood, King Arthur, Beowulf.
  • India: Ramayana.
  • Sumeria: Gilgamesh (the world's oldest known literary work, from the land now called Iraq; important because it has much in common with the Bible--Abraham was originally from Ur, a city in Sumeria, and the epic includes the story of a great flood similar to that of Noah.)

Bible stories

• Bible stories, although written down fairly early, were originally oral.
• Bible stories include many hero tales, and are both religious and, for Jews, patriotic (Ex: David He No Fear).

Tall tales

• Although every culture has tales of exaggeration, the type known as "tall tale" is typically American. (It is not religious in nature.) (Ex.: John Henry).
• Characteristics of a tall tale:
  • It is about a character who is larger and stronger than life, who embodies an area of our country and an occupation common to that region (Paul Bunyan, a logger from the Midwest; Pecos Bill, a cowboy from the Southwest; Cap'n Stormalong, a New England sea captain; Mike Fink, a Mississippi keelboatman; John Henry, a black railroad worker from the South).
  • Tall tales are sometimes called "fakelore" because they were not originally oral (Paul Bunyan is said to have begun as an advertisement for a logging company), but they are now considered as legendary characters.